Anything Goes If You Are a Motorist
Back in January, Maggie and I were trying to equip our newly purchased condo in Greenville SC for outdoor bicycle parking for our two bikes. Steps into our condo, you see, make it impractical to regularly move our bikes in and out of the condo – not to mention the rather limited space indoors.
A neighbor has a shed at the front end of one of their two assigned motor vehicle parking spaces. It is an ugly green color with a door design that doesn’t allow for regularly moving bikes in and out of it.
Maggie selected the shed shown in the image for our bike storage shed, and asked for HOA approval. The board informed us that they’d like something smaller in size and more compatible in appearance.
Oh, and our idea of a door on the side rather than in front of the shed might be a problem when the neighbor parks their car – a car which is far larger than your shed -- in the space next to us.
I told Maggie we should point out to the HOA the glaring double standard. Consider: No HOA approval is needed for a condo owner to opt for a motor vehicle that is acceptable in size (the HOA apparently does not care that motor vehicles consume way more space than our preferred shed). Nor does the HOA require approval for the color of the motor vehicle (so that it is a “compatible” color).
Our car-light household (one motor vehicle) could also take issue with the fact that we were forced to spend thousands of extra dollars to have a second condo parking space that we do not have a need for.
Maggie and I need to become “good residents” by buying a second car and dumping this silly idea of being bicycle commuters.
Only then, apparently, will we avoid heavy-handed scrutiny by the HOA…